Just like many places around the world Lebanon is expecting tourists this summer; some two million said Caretaker Tourism Minister Walid Nassar, the highest figure in years.
The week of July 1, 2023 the International Monetary Fund said that, despite some signs of stability over the past year, Lebanon’s economy remains “severely depressed”. In addition, The United Nations Children’s Fund, in a recent report, said that 9 in 10 households in Lebanon can’t afford to buy essential household items.
Please keep in mind that since late in 2019, the Lebanese lira has lost more than 98 percent of its value with the unofficial rate reaching up to 140,000 lira to the US dollar in mid-March 2023.
According to the World Bank, Lebanon has been recording the world’s highest year-to-year food price inflation with a 261% increase in prices between February 2022 and 2023.
An estimated three-quarters of the country’s population now lives in poverty.
The initial shock of the 4-year economic crisis may be wearing off, but this nation with a caretaker government still leaves a whole list of man-made problems that aren’t going away.
A lot of children and their families are left with no hope. The tourists coming might not witness it but behind the glamorous tourism season still lies a crumbling economy.
The opportunity for ministry, especially with children, has never been more urgent!
It’s one reason Heart for Lebanon is focused on a Summer of Hope.
People in poverty cannot take vacations. Many are refugees trying to make sense of it all and while surviving meal by meal. Each day a child loses hope and goes deeper into despair; wondering if it is possible to have a better life and how they can get it?
Each day they search for hope only to keep finding a broken system that shows no love, no dignity, and no reason to plan for the future.
BUT, when a caring Team comes along and can offers a safe, fun, and welcoming environment filled with love, boys and girls now begin to see what Christ’s love is and they can begin to have hope.
To help lead a child from despair to hope requires the efforts of an entire team. Our Team is dedicated to spending hours visiting, encouraging, caring for, and praying with each child and their family.
Our Summer of Hope include fun activities, Bible clubs, sport clubs and day-camps with programs meant to bring back the missing smiles on children’s faces. More than that, it is a tool to help children learn of the loving and caring Lord we have.
This summer, (today through August 31st) I am inviting you to take this journey of hope with us. With every investment of prayer and finances you make, you will be investing in the life of one of the thousands of children we are serving.
Your investment will help feed, educate, and encourage at-risk children with the Gospel. Your gift will bring back smiles. More importantly, your investment will make the Bible accessible to children and their families.
If we do not reach these children now with the Gospel, radical groups are waiting for their opportunity. We don’t want to see any more children lost for all of eternity.
Thank you in advance for investing in the Summer of Hope campaign!
Tom Atema
Co-Founder
